A year ago, the CoorsTek facility at 4414 Table Mountain Drive was a simple warehouse.

Today, it’s a training center.

And, in the coming months and years, CoorsTek leaders hope it’ll become a regional epicenter for advanced manufacturing workforce development.

On July 16, the company celebrated opening its new CoorsTek Academy Advanced Manufacturing Training Center with its industry and education partners, as well as state and local government officials.

The CoorsTek Academy started in 2021 to train internal hires and employees.

However, this new training center in northeastern Golden was made to be used by outside entities.

According to CoorsTek Workforce Development Manager Elizabeth Pittman, workforce development centers, local school districts, community colleges and other companies will use it to train people in universally applied manufacturing skills.

“This is really what opportunity looks like,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Pittman and other CoorsTek officials explained how the state-of-the-art facility will be ideal for advanced manufacturing personnel, covering everything from a half-day recertification course to a multiyear apprenticeship.

CoorsTek employees are also using the training center for apprenticeships, recertification and other endeavors.

In fact, Pittman said the first apprenticeship cohort — composed of six recent high school graduates from Jefferson and Denver counties — started on June 30 for an 18-month program.

The facility is composed of two training bays. One is specific to CoorsTek employees, with proprietary technology and machinery. The second is open to community colleges, workforce development centers and others, Pittman said.

Both feature innovative technologies, such as a forklift simulator, to help participants learn.

Opportunity Now Colorado

Last year, CoorsTek received a $4.5 million Opportunity Now Colorado grant to help establish the academy. From now until late 2026, the academy must serve at least 1,200 Coloradans as part of the grant requirements.

Polis said that overall, $55 million in Opportunity Now grants will help at least 20,000 Coloradans with job training and placement. The CoorsTek Academy’s training center specifically will be a major boost for the 6,000 companies that comprise Colorado’s advanced manufacturing sector, he said.

CoorsTek leaders thanked the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade and the Governor’s Office for investing in the training center, saying it will become a model for public-private collaboration.

Chief Executive Officer Michael Coors also anticipated it’d be a major asset to Colorado’s advanced manufacturing sector, and help boost local companies, employees and economic development.

Irma Lockridge, chief people & systems officer, encouraged Polis and other officials to check back on the training center in a year to see just how much it had grown and how significant of an impact it’s had.

Click through additional photos from the July 16 ribbon-cutting ceremony:

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Raptors have some of the most dangerous attributes in the animal kingdom.

Falcons can see a mouse’s whiskers across a football field.

Owls can fly without making a sound.

Golden eagles only weigh about 15 pounds, but they can hunt animals as large as deer, thanks to their immensely powerful and sharp talons.

On July 15, four types of raptors and their human caretakers revealed these attributes during the Golden Library’s Talon Talk.

Nature’s Educators hosted Talon Talk at multiple library branches throughout the week, as part of the Jeffco Public Library’s summer reading challenge.

Because a large crowd was expected, Golden Library staff moved the event to the courtyard behind City Hall. About 65 people attended, including some passersby who saw the raptors from the Clear Creek Trail and wanted to learn more about them.

Nature’s Educators, a nonprofit based in Florence, Colorado, is an educational wildlife program licensed by county, state, and federal agencies to care for non-releasable birds of prey, mammals, and herptiles for educational programs.

For instance, the four raptors at the July 15 Talon Talk had sustained major injuries or had been raised in captivity, Nature’s Educators program specialist Alex Olow explained.

Olow recommended that people do what they can to protect and promote raptors and other birds in their neighborhoods. He suggested building birdboxes that songbirds and even small raptors like kestrels can make a home in.

He also advised against letting housecats outside unsupervised, as they kill millions of birds every year, and against throwing food on the side of the road, as it attracts critters and subsequently attracts birds of prey.

Four feathery friends

Raptors are birds of prey characterized by their powerful eyesight and strong talons, he continued. Each species of raptor has its own unique characteristics, which Olow shared as volunteer Kade Rodenbeck presented a different raptor to the crowd.

The first one was a barn owl named Comet.

Barn owls can be found on every continent except Antarctica, Olow said. They have asymmetrical ears, giving them the best hearing of any animal. They can turn their heads 270 degrees, and their aerodynamic feathers allow for completely silent flight.

Barn owls are excellent pest control, as they can eat four mice a day. However, because of that, they’re at risk of consuming rodenticide, Olow said.

Barn owls are among the 13 owl species native to Colorado, but they’re typically not seen much in urban areas.

The second raptor to make its Golden debut was Salvador the crested caracara.

The crested caracara is sometimes called the Mexican eagle, Olow said, despite not being an eagle. It shares some attributes with hawks and vultures, but the crested caracara is actually a type of falcon.

Salvador was hit by a car and had to have his wing amputated, Olow explained. Because of that, he has balance issues.

Crested caracaras are opportunistic hunters and often hunt on foot. They will eat carcasses and food in other birds’ nests, as well as live prey like insects, fish, small birds, rodents and more.

Next up was Sashimi, the turkey vulture.

Sashimi was found abandoned in a box. Olow said Nature’s Educators believe someone tried to keep Sashimi as a pet, found out that was illegal, and so abandoned him.

Turkey vultures are so called because of their turkey-like feet and red faces, but unlike actual turkeys. They are migratory, Olow said, and frequent Colorado between April and October.

Finally, Nature’s Educators saved the biggest raptor for last, as Gaia the golden eagle made her Golden debut.

Golden eagles are actually bigger than bald eagles, Olow explained. Gaia weighs 10 pounds with a 7-foot wingspan.

Like Salvador, Gaia was hit by a car, detaching a retina in her left eye. While she might be able to survive in the wild with such an injury, her caretakers tested her by releasing prey for her to catch. Gaia saw the prey well enough to attack it, but not well enough to kill it. So, she remains under human care.

Olow was unsure of Gaia’s age, saying she’s was an adult when she was found and has been in human care for eight years. Thus, she could be as old as 12. In the wild, golden eagles can live up to 30 years, but they can live longer in captivity.

Golden eagles are apex predators. They’ve been known to attack wolves, bighorn sheep and other large animals, with Olow saying of eagles like Gaia, “She will eat anything she can catch.”

Golden eagles are sometimes called serpentine eagles because they frequently hunt snakes. In fact, the Mexican flag depicts a golden eagle eating a snake, and the golden eagle is the national bird of Mexico and four other countries.

Color your world

Nature’s Educators has done other programs for the Jeffco Public Library branches before, as well as other library systems, cities and other entities along the Front Range.

For more information about natureseducators.org.

The Jeffco Public Library branches will be hosting other events as part of its Color Your World summer reading challenge, which runs through July 31.

For more information, visit jeffcolibrary.org.

Click through additional photos from the July 15 Talon Talk:

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After two standout seasons at Colorado School of Mines, guard Majok Deng is taking his talents to a professional team in Spain.

He has signed a contract to play for Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa Baloncesto, Mines Athletics announced July 9.

The team is the basketball wing of Cultural Leonosa or La Cultural, a Spanish football team based in the province León.

While the football club was established in 1923, the basketball team wasn’t founded until 2022 when two local basketball clubs merged.

The team, which plays its home games at Palacio de los Deportes de León, went 18-8 and 27-3 in its first two seasons. It won its division and earned a promotion in 2024.

Deng, a graduate transfer who joined the Orediggers in fall 2023, told the Transcript in March that he wanted to continue his basketball career even after graduating Mines.

“I feel like I still have a lot of basketball left in me,” he said on March 8, after Mines won the RMAC tournament.

Deng played four years at NCAA Division I program Pepperdine before transferring to Mines to pursue a master’s degree in natural resources & energy policy.

During the 2024-25 season, Deng was Mines’ leading scorer, averaging 14.9 points per game. His season-best was 33 points against Adams State on Feb. 1, where he went 9-14 from the floor, 4-7 in treys and 11-11 at the charity stripe, Mines Athletics noted in a July 9 press release.

Additionally, Deng had a career-high 132 rebounds, 29 steals, 20 assists and eight blocks for the season. He also was the only player to start in all 34 games, Mines Athletics confirmed.

Overall, for the 2024-25 season, Deng helped lead the Orediggers to a 29-5 record, win conference regular-season and tournament titles, and advance to the NCAA tournament’s regional title game.

Among his individual accolades, Deng was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s Player of the Year for the 2024-25 regular season, as well as the RMAC Tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Although he only played with the Orediggers for two seasons, the Tucson, Arizona native etched his name in Mines program history, including ranking eighth in three-point percentage and fourth in free-throw percentage.

For more information, visit MinesAthletics.com.

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When playing sports outdoors, there can be some interference from the elements — the wind, rain or snow. But it is unusual to navigate the ball around a minefield of tubers, swimmers and other kayakers.

Still, six teams of kayakers managed it July 10, as the Colorado Whitewater Association hosted its annual downriver race – but with a new format.

Rather than a strict individual sprint down the creek, as in previous years, this year’s was a ball race.

The kayakers grouped into teams of two or three, and together, navigated a yoga ball about 200-300 yards down the creek and across the finish line. They were allowed to hit their own ball with their paddles or hands, but couldn’t interfere with the other teams’.

Between heats, the kayakers were strategizing ways to improve but ultimately said they were having a lot of fun.

“The competition seems fierce,” Boulder’s Jake Davidson said before the race started. “I expect it will be a battle of wills.”

The teams competed in a tournament, with two teams going head-to-head for most heats. The exception was the so-called “monster loser’s bracket,” where the three teams that lost in the first round competed simultaneously. The winning team would reintegrate into the main bracket.

Team H2O not only survived the three-way elimination round but ultimately came back to win the entire tournament. Winners received gift cards to local businesses for their efforts.

CWA board member Nik White, who helped organize the downriver race, described how the CWA has been hosting events like this and the Golden-based kayak rodeo for 25 years. With more than 700 members across the state, he said it’s a great way to bring kayakers together in Golden during summer.

‘A battle of wills’

Downriver race participants weren’t required to be CWA members to participate, but registration was free for members.

As such, Lakewood’s Andrew Daw signed up for a membership just before the race. Golden’s Courtney Kloor, his teammate, convinced Daw to join her and another teammate for the race, with the three of them competing under the name Whitewater Wackos.

Kloor said, in general, there are several types of kayaks, each with their own pros and cons. The playboats are smaller but maneuver better, while the half-slices are longer but go faster. The team had a mix of playboats and half-slices.

Some types of kayaks wouldn’t be practical for this type of event, she said, because it would likely involve hitting rocks and other boats. So, plastic kayaks were better, since they can take the hits better.

Kloor said she’s done a few minor races before, but had never done a team event. Daw, meanwhile, said he’d never competed in any kayaking event before, but was eager to try.

Davidson and his fellow Boulderite Jonathan Russell, who competed as Team Tech Ballers, said they’d competed in other CWA events in Golden before but had never done a ball race.

The two said they go kayaking together regularly, with Davidson believing that their synergy would help them in the competition.

‘A great way to spend the summer’

Overall, Davidson and Russell said Golden’s Clear Creek Whitewater Park is one of their favorite kayaking spots. Davidson estimated that they visit it every other week in the summer.

Russell summarized the experience as: “We come for Clear Creek and stay for the Mexican food.”

The creek’s also a convenient location for Golden-area kayakers like Kloor and Daw.

Daw said he started learning kayaking about a year-and-a-half ago, and while he said it’s harder than it looks, he also didn’t want people to be intimidated by it the way he’d been.

The kayaking community is super-welcoming, he said. He can post on social media that he wants to go boating and ask if anyone would want to go with him for safety and fun, and people will go with him.

“It’s not as scary as it seems,” he said.

Kloor, who’s been kayaking for three years and is a CWA member, said the sport is “a great way to spend the summer,” as it offers the same thrill as downhill skiing. She also encouraged others to try it.

White said the CWA is hosting other events in Idaho Springs and the Bailey area later this month.

Overall, the CWA hosts events across the state and throughout the year, to give kayakers a chance to meet even during the off-season. It also partners with Golden and other cities on their whitewater features, he said, and has been promoting whitewater access and conservation for 70-plus years.

For more information, visit coloradowhitewater.org.

Click through additional photos from the July 10 competition:

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Downtown Golden may soon be a little quieter, as city officials are considering an ordinance that would restrict amplified music.

The draft ordinance would only apply to public right of way, such as streets, sidewalks and alleyways, within the Downtown Development Authority boundaries.

It wouldn’t affect special events or private properties, including commercial businesses that host outdoor musical performances.

Acoustic music would still be allowed.

Megaphones would also be allowed as long as they weren’t being used to amplify music, including singing, Golden staff members have clarified.

The City Council has scheduled an ordinance second reading and public hearing about the issue at its July 22 meeting. Anyone wishing to submit written or verbal comments may do so at that time.

If passed at the July 22 meeting, city staff said the ordinance would take effect on or around July 30.

“This is not about banning street musicians,” City Councilor Patty Evans said at a June 10 work session. “ … They have some really great talent; it just needs to be quieter.”

‘The amplification has gotten out of control’

Evans and other councilors said they’ve received numerous complaints about street musicians — sometimes called buskers — playing so loudly that downtown employees can’t hear their customers if the business’ doors are open.

In city documents and meetings, City Manager Scott Vargo and Police Chief Joe Harvey have described how the city’s current ordinance can be difficult to enforce, as outdoor music is required to be 65 decibels or less.

City employees are trained to use measurement devices, but wind, crowd noise and traffic can interfere with the readings.

However, Vargo and Harvey said the bigger problems is that, when a city employee contacts someone using an amplification device and asks them to turn it, they will only do so temporarily — until the city employee has left the immediate area. Thus, the problems persist.

“It’s not that we don’t try to enforce existing regulations,” Vargo said at the June 10 work session. “It’s just a much more difficult enforcement technique that we have to go through.”

Thus, City Councilors and Downtown Development Authority members have been discussing this issue, considering various iterations of an ordinance. The current iteration only tackles amplified music in the public right of way, but city officials may revisit similar issues later in the year, they said.

The councilors at the June 10 work session were generally in favor of restricting amplified music, with Councilor Lisa Vitry saying she’s heard from local businesses that “the amplification has gotten out of control.”

Evans even said she’d be in favor of expanding the ordinance beyond the DDA boundaries, so it could benefit other nearby areas too.

Councilor Don Cameron, who’s been working on this ordinance with Councilor Bill Fisher for several months, added that some other municipalities have similar restrictions. He said Boulder has a decades-old ordinance that doesn’t allow any amplified music on the Pearl Street walking mall. Additionally, those who play acoustic music are required to move every 30 minutes.

With speakers and the like restricted in downtown Golden, Vargo and Harvey believed this would be easier and more efficient to enforce versus the current 65-decibel noise limit.

Any music at special events or commercial venues would still be subject to it, though, along with other existing city ordinances, they clarified.

The post Golden planning to restrict amplified music in downtown right of way appeared first on Colorado Community Media.

The national title-winning Colorado School of Mines men’s cross-country runners aren’t just at the top of the podium.

They’re at the top of the classroom, too.

The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference recently announced the 2024-25 Brechler Award winners, recognizing the top-performing academic teams across the conference’s 22 sponsored sports.

The Mines men’s cross country and men’s indoor track & field teams were among the winners.

Regis and Colorado Mesa led the member universities, with four recipient teams each. Chadron State followed with three, and Mines tied Black Hills State and Westminster with two each.

The Mines men’s cross country team’s win is the program’s first since the award was established in 2012-13, the Orediggers confirmed in a recent press release.

The two Mines teams and the other the Brechler Award-winning teams were scheduled to be recognized at the July 10 RMAC awards banquet in Colorado Springs.

This year’s Brechler Awards, named after former RMAC Commissioner Paul W. Brechler, was based on the highest team GPA from the 2024-25 academic year, the RMAC described in its press release.

The team GPA includes all student-athletes who were on the institution’s NCAA eligibility list, and is calculated by dividing the total quality points for each semester by the total number of credits.

The Mines men’s cross country team produced a 3.595 GPA, Mines Athletics confirmed, while the men’s indoor track & field team had a 3.563 GPA — winning its second-straight Brechler Award and fifth overall.

Several Orediggers compete on both teams, as well as on the outdoor track & field team.

In fall 2024, the Mines men’s cross country team went undefeated on the race course. The Orediggers swept the RMAC and NCAA Regional titles and eventually won their fourth NCAA Division II championship in 10 years.

Then, for the indoor track & field season, the Orediggers had their best-ever finish at the NCAA Division II championships with six individual podium finishes and a third-place team trophy.

Right now, the Mines runners are on summer break, but official practices resume next month. Then, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams kick off their 2025 competition schedule Sept. 20 at Denver’s Washington Park.

For more information, including Colorado School of Mines’ 2025-26 athletic calendar, visit MinesAthletics.com.

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Since Golden’s DeLong Park opened in June 2022, people have pushed their strollers, walked their dogs and jogged with friends along the park’s sidewalks.

But, unbeknownst to many of them, one of those sidewalks was mistakenly built in a neighboring yard. And now, three years later, the City of Golden and the design company are fixing it.

The Golden City Council approved buying about 2,700 square feet of land at 400 24th St. at its July 8 meeting. That’s where the sidewalk was built and the city will use money from design company IMEG, LLC to do so, city staff confirmed.

The Pallagi family, the current property owners, will receive $80,000 for the sidewalk-impacted land and $7,000 for fence installation.

The parties will close on the land purchase later this summer.

‘We don’t know why it happened’

In 2017, the City of Golden bought a 1-acre residential property off 23rd Street from the DeLong family. The long-term plan was to turn it into a park.

The project was in the planning, design and construction process for about five years, according to previous Transcript coverage, and about 80 city officials and residents hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for it on June 7, 2022.

Assistant to the City Manager Steve Glueck confirmed how DeLong Park was designed in 2019, which included a completed property survey. The design included using city right of way for Vernon Street — which had never been built out as a street — to put a sidewalk between 23rd and 24th streets, Glueck explained.

“In the preparation of final construction plans, the sidewalk connection was erroneously shifted down the hill to a location closer to the corridor for the abandoned Welch Ditch,” he stated in a council memo. “The connection was subsequently constructed in that location, encroaching on and effectively cutting off part of the property at 400 24th Street.”

Joseph David Pallagi and his family have owned 400 24th St. since 1988. Pallagi reportedly tried to tell project representatives about the encroachment during construction in 2021, and again in fall 2024, according to Glueck’s memo.

After the July 8 meeting, Glueck said it’s unclear exactly whom Pallagi tried to tell, whether it was city employees or elected officials, or someone from the construction company. Pallagi then had health problems and didn’t pursue it further, until he ran into a Golden Public Works employee last fall.

At that time, he brought the issue up again, and the city looked into it. Glueck said that once the mistake was verified, the city sought a resolution with the Pallagi family and IMEG.

After several weeks of meetings and negotiations and after agreeing it would be too difficult to move the sidewalk, all three parties found a resolution, Glueck said.

Now that the City Council has approved it, the parties plan to close on the land transaction in late July or early August, Glueck said.

Glueck wrote to City Council that IMEG, which did the park’s final construction plans, believed there was likely a miscommunication among the park design team. However, “accountability for the error lies with them,” Glueck wrote.

On July 8, he added: “We can document what happened, but we don’t know why it happened.”

Thus, the company is paying Golden $87,000 so the city can buy the impacted land and pay the Pallagi family to install a fence. This includes the 6-foot-wide sidewalk, the square footage between the sidewalk and the park boundary, and a 3-foot-wide buffer on the other side, Glueck described.

In the council memo, he also stated how IMEG is covering all the city’s direct costs, including some legal reimbursements. The only exceptions are the “minimal” closing costs and the insurance policy, which the city is paying.

The post Golden to buy DeLong Park sidewalk after it was built across residential property appeared first on Colorado Community Media.

For many Goldenites, the best way to celebrate Independence Day is with live music, food and fun activities in Lions Park.

The Golden Lions Club kept the tradition alive at its 53rd annual 4th of July Festival, where thousands of people turned out to celebrate the holiday.

This year’s event kicked off with a yoga session — a new feature this year — and then the main festivities started at 11 a.m.

The City of Golden sponsored the Junior Jubilee again this year, with inflatable obstacle courses, mazes and bounce houses, along with face-painting and balloon artist stations.

Three bands played throughout the afternoon and into the evening, and American Legion Post 21 hosted a food stand in addition to local companies’ food trucks and beer tents.

Returning attendees said they love coming every year because they like spending a day outside near Clear Creek. They also enjoy the traditions, the free children’s activities and the live music. Several newcomers felt likewise, describing how they enjoyed it so much they were planning to return next year.

Click through additional photos from this year’s 4th of July Festival:

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Exactly two years from now, the highways around Golden and all over Colorado should be much quieter, improving residents’ quality of life.

The Colorado legislature passed and Gov. Jared Polis recently signed into law a bill that gives law enforcement officers new methods to ensure all commercial vehicles have mufflers, as already required by law.

The law, which was introduced as HB25-1039, will take effect July 1, 2027.

Organizers said they’ve been working on the bill for two years and were excited to see it become law, adding how it wouldn’t have been possible without all the partners’ collaboration.

During its time in the legislature, HB25-1039 had bipartisan and bicameral support. It was also backed by the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, the Golden City Council, and residents in Jefferson and Clear Creek counties, among others.

Rep. Brianna Titone, who represents the Golden area and was one of the bill’s sponsors, said she knows many people around Golden and across Colorado whose lives are impacted by continual truck noise. She’d hoped to bring them relief sooner, but she said the two-year wait period was a necessary compromise due to budgetary reasons.

Under HB25-1039, the Colorado Department of Revenue’s computer systems would have to be upgraded to keep records of all muffler violations, she and former Golden City Councilor Casey Brown explained.

The DOR’s systems were already set to be upgraded by 2027. Thus, proponents could make the bill little to no cost by “piggybacking” on those scheduled upgrades, Brown said, which was advantageous in the legislature’s “tight budget environment.”

Brown, who has been championing HB25-1039 on behalf of the Golden City Council, hoped the Colorado Department of Transportation and Colorado State Patrol would start education efforts in the coming months. Not only would it help truck drivers learn about the new law before it takes effect, but it might also help reduce truck noise in the intervening 24 months, he said.

Titone also expected some kind of education campaign for truck drivers, whether by state officials, industry associations or both.

She also clarified how this new law will only apply to commercial vehicles of a certain weight, not passenger vehicles. Farm vehicles and electric vehicles are also exempted.

“We just want to make sure people aren’t caught off-guard; we don’t want to fine anybody for any of this,” Titone said. “ … We want to make sure those living near the highway aren’t paying the price for the vanity of having a loud truck.”

While it won’t take effect for two years, Brown hoped this new law would not only benefit Colorado but other states as well. He believed they could use HB25-1039 as a template to address the truck noise impacting their residents’ quality of life.

“It took a while, but I’m just really happy,” Brown said of getting HB25-1039 written and passed. “I know it takes a while to implement, but I hope we will see some real relief and see a lot more compliance (when it goes into effect).”

‘Do the right thing’

According to Colorado Motor Carriers Association President Greg Fulton, although commercial vehicles are required by law to have a muffler, some truck drivers have intentionally removed their mufflers.

Fulton previously described how some “renegade” drivers like the “clean look” of a truck without a muffler, along with the attention they get by generating loud noises when they drive.

If these drivers are contacted by law enforcement regarding their muffler, or lack thereof, Fulton said they can skirt around the requirement by claiming their muffler is the kind that is inside the truck’s exhaust stack.

These kinds of mufflers are real but rare, he explained, but it’s difficult to prove whether a truck really has one.

Under HB25-1039, though, all commercial vehicles will be required to either have a visible muffler or documentation proving the muffler is inside the exhaust stack. This will close the loophole that a very small but loud minority of drivers have been exploiting for years, he continued.

Even before the bill was signed into law, Fulton was confident that word would get out and those drivers without mufflers would come into compliance.

“We want to incentivize people to do the right thing,” he said.

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With temperatures hitting 90 degrees and with the creek open to tubing and swimming, it’s no wonder that everyone and their dog flocked to Golden’s section of Clear Creek for the June 28-29 weekend.

After a two-week closure, city and county officials reopened Clear Creek to tubing and swimming on June 24, as water levels and speeds dropped. This effectively kicked off Golden’s tubing season, as the corridor sees thousands of tubers throughout the summer.

Many took advantage of it on June 28, as tubers, kayakers, riverboarders, rafters, swimmers and others enjoyed a hot afternoon on the creek.

City of Golden ambassadors remarked how, while June 28 was certainly busy, the corridor sees much bigger crowds later in the summer. They attributed the smaller crowds to the yellow-flag conditions, which cautions against children recreating in the water.

Yellow-flag conditions also can be hazardous, and adults are recommended to wear helmets and life jackets, and to proceed with caution, they said. There have been a few rescues and other dangerous situations since the creek reopened to tubing on June 24, they explained.

Along the Clear Creek Trail between U.S. Highway 6 and Vanover Park, there were dozens of people floating along the creek. Many were wearing protective equipment; others were not. Some flipped out of their tubes as they were going down a rapid but managed to regroup. Most of them seemed to be enjoying themselves.

At Vanover Park, though, there were still plenty of smiles and laughs, but others were processing and recovering from their experiences.

One rafter said he got tossed out and smacked into a rock, and describing how his adrenaline kicked in during the experience and was just starting to wear off.

Among the tubers, Brad Meyer said he’d lost feeling in his toes because the water was so cold, and couple Brandi Scarboro and Scott Kerner were also recovering from the extra-cold water by basking in the sun. Then, Geneva Espinoza and Shannon Lawrence had scrapes on their shins and cuts on their toes from where they ran into rocks.

Overall, the tubers said they had fun but recommended caution.

Espinoza and Lawrence specifically encouraged people to rent life jackets, as they did, even though they brought their own innertube. They also wished they could’ve rented a paddle to better steer themselves away from the rocks and other hazards.

Espinoza said she probably wouldn’t go tubing on Clear Creek again, but Lawrence was more open to it. They both described how “if it wasn’t for the rocks, it would’ve been fine.”

‘A fun, free thing to do’

Meyer, who was visiting from Texas, and Jay Sheridan from Virginia were first-time tubers on Clear Creek. The two said they were in town for the Metallica concert and were looking for things to do. Sheridan’s cousin who lives in Longmont said they could go tubing, and recommended Golden over Boulder.

Sheridan and Meyer rented tubes at Adventure West and took the shuttle up to Clear Creek Canyon Park, and then rode their tubes down to Vanover one time. Sheridan said he’d be willing to do a second trip, but Meyer said he wanted to get feeling back in his toes first.

Despite the cold water, they felt the experience was “smooth” and “well-organized.” They said they felt safe and well-informed before their tubing adventure.

Meanwhile, Scarboro and Kerner were veteran tubers, who’ve been visiting Clear Creek for four and two seasons, respectively. They typically go tubing four or five times a season, taking roughly three trips down the creek for each visit. They said they recently bought their own tube to use in Golden and other tubing destinations.

They’d been checking the flag restrictions on Clear Creek and, when they saw tubing was allowed, they were excited to kick off their tubing season.

“It’s a fun, free thing to do,” Scarboro said, “and there aren’t many of those around.”

Scarboro and Kerner remarked how, while Clear Creek is usually quite cold because it’s snowmelt, the water seemed “super-cold” on June 28. The two normally like getting flipped out of their tube while going down the rapids, but the water temperature dampened the experience this time.

They also recommended life jackets, especially if people aren’t experienced with colder water, and said the ambassador information stands are also a good resource for newcomers.

For Lakewood’s Ben Cohen, considering it was the first summer weekend when tubing and swimming was allowed, he said, “It’s nice to see such a big turnout.” While he and his friends floated down Clear Creek in inflatable rafts, he noted how there were dozens of people along the creek cheering on and supporting the tubers.

Overall, he felt like Golden was very friendly to tubers and water sports in general.

Cohen anticipated he and his friends would return to Golden in the coming weeks, saying they’d be monitoring the water speeds and conditions to identify the best time to go rafting.

“Any time it’s over 400 (cubic feet per second), that’s a good time to come out,” he said.

Click through additional photos of Clear Creek on June 28:

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